Can you tell me why otherwise sensible people believe in god?

Question

Weird

Answer 1

For a couple of hundred bucks, I'd have to sit them on the psychiatrists couch - and let them, answer; 'Who is this imaginary friend that you call God?'

Answer 2

Sensible has nothing to do with it. Everyone believes in something .Some people believe that a being directs the universe and everything in it. Some people want to believe that they direct the flow of their own lives. Everyone believes in good luck and bad and need something or someone to credit or blame. Ying and Yang. Good luck and Bad luck. God and Devil. I'm an agnostic after a very varried religious upbringing. Everyone must choose what to believe and everyone must have the right to choose. Calling someone down using their right to believe against them is intolorant and Unamerican. This continent was peopled by immegrants who had no choice. A new start, right? Lets not become the Old Countries where intolorence of freedom of religion was the reason for emmigrating.

Answer 3

Faith...

Can you tell me why otherwise sensible people believe in reason (a historical construct), in democracy (an illusion), in love (without evidence), etc.? Lots of things that people take for granted as being "sensible" are either not true at the base, are historically contingent, are unproven, etc.

For example, the inherent superiority of the white/European race was an absolutely unquestionable belief held by the vast majority of Europeans up until a few hundred years ago. At the time, it was very "sensible" and "obvious" that Euros were superior to everyone else. Now, we do not believe that (rightly, in my opinion). But if you argued that Euros were equal to other races, at the time, you would have been called mad--because reason, sensibility, madness, delusion--the definitions and positioning of these domains varies over time and community.

Answer 4

I'll answer your query with one:

Can you tell me why an otherwise judging God allows people who don't believe in him to breathe (his) air?

Answer: LOVE! Cool, huh?

Take some advice from one of those 'otherwise sensible' people, and consider the above question VERY carefully-
there may soon come a day when he decides to cut if off, lest you remain an unrepentant atheist!

Acts 17:30 (King James Version)

And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:

AND

John 3:16 (among a few thousand other verses)

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Answer 5

I have been converted, and now feel more sensible as a believer of God than I did before, and my parents say the same thing, and they were against me going to church at first.
As a follower of God, there are certian rules I decide to live by, which, trust me, stop myself from getting into situations which I could well have got into if I didn't have them e.g. getting a girl pregnant.
Overall, I believe that deciding to follow God was probably the most sensible thing I have ever done.

Answer 6

I imagine you're referring to 'God' as in the man with the white beard and billowing white dress? The 'God' that most ignorant atheist believe Christians subscribe to.

Not everyone who believes in God subscribes to this perception of him/her/it. In fact Christianity only uses this image to personify God when really they believe God is a force and power - not some guy in a dress and sandals. It's used mostly for introducing children to the concept and making it easier for them to understand until they're old enough to understand the more theological and spiritual sides of faith.

Some of us use God as the name for the force that created everything. Ok so the big bang theory is good and explains things back to a certain point. But what created that? And what was there before that? And where did that come from?

Call it forces of nature, infinity, divine grace, or whatever else you want - human nature is such that we seek to explain and label all the things and occurances that take place in life and the world around us. Seeing God as the force or power that created whatever it was that sparked the big bang is not weird - something had to strike that match....

Personally I think anyone who believes the entire universe occurred purely by chance is weird. I'll ask you again, what was there before the big bang? And where does that come from?

Answer 7

First, it is very egotistical to believe that WE are the greatest sentiant things in the universe. It is VERY uppity of one to say there IS NOT ANYTHING GREATER THAN I!

There is nothing greater and I bow to no one!

That's very uppity.

Second, Las Vegas ODDS are far more favorable to SOMEONE OR SOMETHING WILLFULLY INTELLEGENT WHO MAKES THINGS HAPPEN.

Try an experiment. Go to radio shack, buy all the electronic parts they have, put them into a box, shake them up. Let me know when they make you an IPOD without WILLFUL intervention.

Las Vegas ODDS favor, strongly, the CREATIVE MIND making that IPOD from those parts than RANDOM ASSEMBLY FROM THE LOTTO PROCESS.

I mean, that is the explaination of STars, Planets, Humans, Birds, Fish, Water, Air without a CREATOR.

The Universe shook a box full of electrons and protons and neutrons and out came WE!

AND the UNIVERSE did this without HANDS or a BRAIN.

You call THAT sensible to think or believe in!

Then why go to school.

Science tells us our INSTINCTS drive us to proper food sources automatically.

NATURE provides caves and pits and wood.

Why does MAN CREATE.

What's the PURPOSE of that CREATION.

A better life.

Yeah, right with A Bombs in Pakistan, India, North Korea

With GLOBAL WARMING NOT CAUSED by volcanos, but the CAR and the INDUSTRY.

A better life!

An Afrikanni in the year 1000 BC knew MORE about AREODYNAMICS than YOU DO.

They had HIGHLY accurate blow guns, with poision tipped pins that could kill an animal to provide food.

They did BETTER back then then you do with clothing that looks liek the forrest, a high powered rifle with telescopic sight and laser pointer and SENT REMOVER.

India was using rockets in war LONG before the White Man.

In fact, India used them against the British and it worked quite well.

Maybe the ATHEISTS ARE RIGHT. CREATIONISM IS WRONG AND SHOULD BE BANNED

NO ONE SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO CREATE, for every time we do it we bring a plauge of problems on the world and mankind!

Creationism is NOT natures way. We should just sit in our caves waiting for NATURE to EVOLVE IT FOR US.

Maybe things would be better that way!

Answer 8

I was top of my year out of 120 and I played chess for Ireland and I felt it must have taken a God to create the world.
When I told someone I was a Christian, I was born again, I was baptised with the Holy Spirit, so I know, for sure, 100% that there is a God.

Answer 9

A sense of faith? Or something else? who can really know except for themselves, as long as they are rational and free thinking and not some crazed fanatic!

Are you already a Realist? - Do you find yourself thinking about reality? Do you think that it's important that what you believe in is actually real? Do you think for yourself rather than just believing what you are told to believe? When you counsel friends on important matters, do you advise them to take reality into consideration? Do you believe the world would be better off if reality were a more important part of society? if you answered YES to these questions you may already be a Realist.

Answer 10

It's because I am sensible that I believe in God. The more I study science, the more I believe that this beautiful, intricately balanced world of ours is a strong argument for the existence of a Creator.

Believing in God has brought me peace and joy, which has allowed me to live a happy and productive life. That seems like a very sensible thing to me, too.

I'm sorry you can't understand this, but just because it doesn't make sense to *you*, that doesn't mean that it's illogical.

Answer 11

There are two possible reasons:

One is that believing in God fulfils some kind of emotional need that evolution was unkind enough to give us, or because people are weak, or because people need to cling to something to deal with the fact that they are mortal.

Or it is sensible to believe in God because it is the truth.